Reading Excel files from C#

Answer 1

Here's some code I wrote in C# using .NET 1.1 a few years ago. Not sure if this would be exactly what you need (and may not be my best code :)).

using System;
using System.Data;
using System.Data.OleDb;

namespace ExportExcelToAccess
{
    /// 

    /// Summary description for ExcelHelper.
    /// 
    public sealed class ExcelHelper
    {
        private const string CONNECTION_STRING = "Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source=;Extended Properties=\"Excel 8.0;HDR=Yes;\";";

        public static DataTable GetDataTableFromExcelFile(string fullFileName, ref string sheetName)
        {
            OleDbConnection objConnection = new OleDbConnection();
            objConnection = new OleDbConnection(CONNECTION_STRING.Replace("", fullFileName));
            DataSet dsImport = new DataSet();

            try
            {
                objConnection.Open();

                DataTable dtSchema = objConnection.GetOleDbSchemaTable(OleDbSchemaGuid.Tables, null);

                if( (null == dtSchema) || ( dtSchema.Rows.Count <= 0 ) )
                {
                    //raise exception if needed
                }

                if( (null != sheetName) && (0 != sheetName.Length))
                {
                    if( !CheckIfSheetNameExists(sheetName, dtSchema) )
                    {
                        //raise exception if needed
                    }
                }
                else
                {
                    //Reading the first sheet name from the Excel file.
                    sheetName = dtSchema.Rows[0]["TABLE_NAME"].ToString();
                }

                new OleDbDataAdapter("SELECT * FROM [" + sheetName + "]", objConnection ).Fill(dsImport);
            }
            catch (Exception)
            {
                //raise exception if needed
            }
            finally
            {
                // Clean up.
                if(objConnection != null)
                {
                    objConnection.Close();
                    objConnection.Dispose();
                }
            }


            return dsImport.Tables[0];
            #region Commented code for importing data from CSV file.
            //              string strConnectionString = "Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;" +"Data Source=" + System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(fullFileName) +";" +"Extended Properties=\"Text;HDR=YES;FMT=Delimited\"";
            //
            //              System.Data.OleDb.OleDbConnection conText = new System.Data.OleDb.OleDbConnection(strConnectionString);
            //              new System.Data.OleDb.OleDbDataAdapter("SELECT * FROM " + System.IO.Path.GetFileName(fullFileName).Replace(".", "#"), conText).Fill(dsImport);
            //              return dsImport.Tables[0];

            #endregion
        }

        /// 

        /// This method checks if the user entered sheetName exists in the Schema Table
        /// 
        /// Sheet name to be verified
        /// schema table 
        private static bool CheckIfSheetNameExists(string sheetName, DataTable dtSchema)
        {
            foreach(DataRow dataRow in dtSchema.Rows)
            {
                if( sheetName == dataRow["TABLE_NAME"].ToString() )
                {
                    return true;
                }   
            }
            return false;
        }
    }
}